Liveblogging A Recording Of The Spring Game: Second Half
And we’re back.
- Kickoffs are not exciting! Norton makes the tackle. He looks thinner than last year. I hope it helps his change of direction.
- Team Feelings starts the second half. Ian Harris is in with Chiles and the gang. They start with a reverse that Acho destroys. Did I mention show much I like him?
It was stupid playcall, too, because when Chiles is in the game of course someone is going to be at home on the backside. Chiles tried to block Acho, but that is not the kind of matchup you gameplan for as an offensive coordinator.
- 2nd and 16, Chiles drops to pass and has to scramble again. He only gets a yard as Thomas pushed him out. I know this is just practice and all, but Chiles hasn’t shown even remedial drop back passing skills at this point. I hope we use it as a last resort in games. I feel awful for his receivers.
- 3rd and 15. Defense is called for . . . disconcerting the snap count? Way to cause an emotional disturbance there, Dustin Earnest.
- 3rd and 10. Good and bad here. Good news is, the pass got completed, it wasn’t bounced off the turf or anything. Bad news is, had the ball been a good throw, it probably would’ve been knocked down. Since it was high, Curtis Brown whiffed and Kirkendoll ran for a big gain after the catch. Good jump on the ball by Brown, but he got burned for it. Chiles put it in the one place that only Kirkdendoll could get it, but there is no way he did that on purpose. Hot and cold all around, here.
- First down. Fozzy takes a zone read for 6. Good blocking by everyone again. Second unit OL is playing very well. Nothing special here, but it is nice to see the defense spread out on a run play. I miss that.
- 2nd and 4. Same play, but here’s the thing. It’s an 8 man front, the interior OL absolutely demolishes the front 7, Fozzy makes Christian Scott miss and picks up 14. Doubt the power of the spread option. I dare you.
Yes, there was a walkon MLB who overran the play and left the hole. But that’s the position you put the defense in. When you don’t tell them where the ball is going, good things happen. And I want to repeat again how completely and utterly dominated the rest of the front was there.
They show an end zone angle that demonstrates exactly why I get such a hardon for this offense. Scott had to hesitate to watch Chiles, which is why he couldn’t get over in time. If that’s Colt, there is no play.
- 1st. Chiles keeps this time out of a 2 TE formation and gets more yards than he should have thanks to Dravannti Johnson and the walkon again. That was a tough spot for Johnson, so I don’t blame him there. It was just a bad defense for that play. He had to watch the TE, who blocked someone else. He came off pretty quickly but not fast enough.
- 2nd and 4, same set same play. Fozzy gets close to a first down as the walkon makes the stop. He can write home about that. Huey is mauling Wilcoxin.
- 3rd and short, QB sneak, good.
- 1st. Another dropback pass, another scramble. Good run, first down, the fans are happy, but Greg Davis is probably pulling his hair out. So are we, Greg.
- 1st. Mcgee flies forward for a good gain. We look like we’re trying to ice the freaking spring game. Come on, guys, show us something.
- It says first down again, so I must’ve missed something there. This isn’t up to my award winning journalist standards, but let’s just skip it and pretend it never happened. 1st. First option of the day, which Acho runs down. God I love that kid. He’s better than Crowder was at this stage.
- 2nd and 6, a late blitz off the slot beats Ian Harris and stops the hand off to McGee for a small loss. Good football play there by Ishie Odewegu . . . that’s probably not spelled right, but who cares. We won an award for this!
- 3rd and 7. Chiles actually throws the ball, which shockingly skips behind the feet of the intended receiver. Ugh. Chiles may be playing his way to the bench. If our coaches have any balls at all, he’s 3rd string come fall.
- They kick a figgie I assume, I don’t know. I got bored and skipped ahead to a kickoff! Award winning, folks.
- This is the moment we all waited for. Crusty yet untested vet Sherrod Harris. The great unknown. They call him The Smile. OK, only I call him that. We’ve also entered the portion of the broadcast where everyone starts ignoring the game to interview former players on the sideline. Do you want to see two non contributors on bad teams talk trash to each other? You don’t!? Welcome to the club, membership: everyone.
- First down for Harris, and he comes out in the I. I hate life right about now. The defense is mostly intact, but two LBs are walkons. A playaction bootleg results in a defender right in Harris’ face, but he makes a football play and throws a beautiful pass to Irby who was wide open. Play nets about 16.
Harris’ play in consistent with everything I’ve ever seen of him. He’s cool under pressure, he makes good decisions, he’s athletic, and he throws a gorgeous ball. Better than Colt, even. Why this guy can’t get a chance is beyond me. That play had nothing to do with competition level. He nailed it.
- 1st again. I just found out Blaine Irby is black. I found out last weekend that Frank Haith is black, too. I need catch up on my backlog of JET magazine, or something.
Straight drop out of an offset I. We run our heavy stuff into the boundary which frees up Buckner on a backside post. Harris makes a good read, puts the ball right where it needs to be, but Palmer makes a good play from behind on it. This is why I don’t think Buckner plays this year. He is a possession receiver. There isn’t anything wrong with that, but we already have those and more. We need explosion. He’s good, don’t get me wrong, we just won’t need him.
- 2nd and 10. Kinne comes in and throws a pass to the flat for 2. With your permission, I’m going to find more Harris.
- Skipping ahead a few minutes gets us Harris again, on a 4th and 8. It’s a pass, but he scrambles quite effortlessly out of trouble then around Dustin Earnest for a first down, which is either good or bad. I have no idea.
- OK, honestly, nothing else interesting happens. Sherrod Harris ends up with a TD on a zone read. It’s tough to give him too much credit against a tired backup unit, but I can say with 100% confidence that he is a good enough athlete to survive in Vince’s offense. 100%.
Tre Newton and Jeremy Hills each get a carry. Neither does anything notable. Cody Johnson never gets a reason to run hard, but you can tell he ain’t running a 4.4 anytime soon. He isn’t Javorski, but he’s big.
Some overall thoughts from the spring:
I have more confidence in the offense after watching this. The OL will be very good eventually. We have talent at RB, so no worries there. Our WRs are good, but we do lack a proven big play guy. Malcolm Williams and Jordan Shipley need to be that threat for us. Colt was Colt. That is not really a good thing. I think he’s as good as he’ll ever be. If I was coach, Harris would be starting (or Chiles, if I could iron out his motion) and we would be running 80% of the time. But, then again, you already knew that. Yes, I linked that twice in consecutive posts. It took a long time to do.
Our coverage ability is spectacular. It’s right there with 2005. We are unproven run stoppers though, and nobody stood out there in the game. We have no Michael Griffin. Still, it’s so much fun watching these guys play. If either Chykie or Curtis Brown steps up over the summer, we are going to be tough to beat with a lead. We are going to hammer Tech, too.
LBs will be fine if they can stay healthy. If we are playing Bobino and Earnest, we’ll be in trouble there again. We need depth there.
First team DL looked great, Miller especially. Sam Acho needs to play. I’m really confident about our first team defense. If anyone gets tired or hurt, depending on who it is, we might not be so OK. We can cover up one Bobino or Ishie, though. We are going to be really good for the next couple years.
Offense showed off some new twists. I hope we keep them throughout the year. Davis showed a bizzare habit of using one wrinkle in the run game versus a team, then ditching it forever. Out best game running the ball, surprisingly was against he best run defense we faced, OU. We ran it well that day because we used misdirection and variety. Then we put it away. Mystifying. If we show what we used today, plus a few wrinkes here and there, our running game will improve. You have my word on that.
We still have a problem at QB. Colt is good, but not 14 wins in a row good. At this point I’d risk it with Chiles or Harris, but there is no way we do that unless Colt gets hurt. He’s starting this and next year, and he probably shouldn’t be. We’re a better offense with a running QB. It’s just that simple. Davis’ passing game is so unreliable that someone will stone us for 48 minutes. It’s inevitable. We need to explore this.
Muschamp and Major looks like home run hires so far. Mack, from what I’ve heard, has taken their advice in some key areas. Mack will always be as good as his coaches, so this is really, really good news for us. If I had to guess right now, I’d say 10-2, with two close losses to OU, Missouri, Kansas or someone we won’t expect. If Colt quits farting around and we can find a way to resuscitate our run game with him, we can run the table. We’ll be better than everyone on the schedule. I don’t have faith that the offense can have 13 straight good games in a row, but the defense will be light years better. We could win them all, or we could lose 3. It’s all up to Colt now.
April 3, 2008 at 9:46 am
10-2? Wow, just wow. I’m going to go back and watch the entire game again as I didn’t see anything near 10 wins’ worth of talent at qb, rb, db or dl on that field. Not to mention the massive sucking void that resides between Greg Davis’s ears.
April 3, 2008 at 9:56 am
You didn’t see a lot of talent on the DL or at DB? Okay.
Irby is black?
April 3, 2008 at 12:05 pm
I saw thin talent from spun down DE’s on the line [Henry Melton is one of our great hopes at DT? Seriously?]. There is not a proven DB on the team. As Darrel said, potential just means you ain’t done it yet. These guys ain’t done it yet.
April 3, 2008 at 12:12 pm
There’s a ton of talent at DL and DB. Some need to show they can produce when the lights are on but there’s buku talent there.
April 3, 2008 at 12:15 pm
Just like last year, I’m putting a lot of faith in the Big 12 sucking again. It hasn’t failed since 2003.
April 3, 2008 at 12:16 pm
“You didn’t see a lot of talent on the DL or at DB? Okay.”
What? There must’ve been a typo or something.
April 3, 2008 at 12:23 pm
Great post.
As to the QB. It looks like from 2006 thru the 2007 RRS, we tried to protect Colt by not running him (the “zone read” became the “zone give”). After that game (or maybe it was the 4th quarter of the NU game), it looks like the coaches realized that the QB has to run for this offense to work. McCoy’s planned carries went up a bunch at that point.
April 3, 2008 at 12:44 pm
“What? There must’ve been a typo or something.”
He was replying to Stoddard.
Also, Blaine Irby is the whitest black guy I’ve ever seen. That’s Racist!
April 3, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Blaine Irby makes Bryant Gumbel look like Malcolm X.
April 3, 2008 at 12:48 pm
“I saw thin talent from spun down DE’s on the line [Henry Melton is one of our great hopes at DT? Seriously?]. There is not a proven DB on the team. As Darrel said, potential just means you ain’t done it yet. These guys ain’t done it yet.”
That’s just on defense. On offense, we have a bunch of running backs who look like a collection of A.J. Jones look-alikes - other than Ogbannaya, who is slower than most offensive linemen - with not a difference maker among them.
In fact, I don’t see a single difference-making talent on the entire offense, perhaps the entire team. Not only do we not have a Vince Young at QB, we don’t even have a Chris Simms. There’s no Roy Williams or even a Limas Sweed at WR, no Dave Thomas at TE, no Mike Williams or Leonard Davis on the OL.
Greg Davis’s offensive system has always relied on superior-talented players to create space and plays for themselves, because the scheme damn sure doesn’t do it for them. Jamaal Charles essentially won two games late for us last year with his ability to do just that.
There’s no Jamaal Charles on this team, at least not one that’s apparent at this point in time. Now, someone could develop into that between now and the Arkansas game, and we’d better hope that happens. Otherwise, we’re looking 8-4 right in the face.
April 3, 2008 at 1:42 pm
Blaine Irby plays in White Face to garner Ed McCaffrey comparisons.
April 3, 2008 at 2:37 pm
I’m pretty sure the Big 12 won’t suck next year. If we go 10-2 then we are probably a legit top 8 team. I don’t see that happening, but I would be very happy with 10-2.
If Muschamp can turn us into an above average defense then he earned his $$$. Our defense has been nothing short of pathetic for two years in a row.
I am optimistic about the o-line as well. That along with a solid college QB in McCoy should mean that we have at least an above average offense. Like Eyes said though, we need a guy or two to really emerge as a “playmaker”. That is the key on offense. For good and bad, you know what you are getting with McCoy. A much more mobile Applewhite. Good, but not good enough to win them all.
April 3, 2008 at 3:01 pm
There are two keys this year, running the ball and stopping the run. Do both consistently, 10-2/11-1. Do only one cosistently, 8-4/9-3. Do neither consistently, 7-5.
We potentially have the O-line to do the first, although either Allen or Hix has to come through in a big way. I’m really afraid we do not have the strength to do the second.
April 3, 2008 at 3:28 pm
“He was replying to Stoddard.”
Gotcha.
As for Irby, they showed Ian Harris and put Irby’s name under him. They’d done it a bunch of times so I tried, and failed, to make a joke. I feel like Jay Leno.
The Frank Haith ones was real, though. I had no idea.
April 3, 2008 at 3:30 pm
All I’m saying is that this is the first year of the “We won the NC so let’s drag ass” recruiting. Whereas in the past you knew going in to the season who the studs were, now we are simply speculating on who they MIGHT be. McGee MIGHT be the answer at rb. Scott MIGHT be the answer at safety. Repeat.
At this point I’ll take 8-4 and be real darned happy.
April 3, 2008 at 3:38 pm
You are too pessimistic. There won’t be 1 team better than us, much less 4.
We’ll still lose a couple, we but are immensely more talented than last year. We actually have guys who might be the answer on defense, instead of 7-8 guys we know won’t be.
April 3, 2008 at 4:37 pm
We had this conversation last year, but there is literally no reasonable circumstance in which we will lose 4 or 5 games. To do that would mean that all of our scholarship QBs got hurt, and 80% of our young players turn out to be horrible.
If we won 10 games last year, with 24 INTs and one of the worst defenses in the history of the school, we are not going to do even worse this year when Colt’s numbers return to equilibrium and the defense improves leaps and bounds.
OU will still be strong, Missouri will be good, and Kansas, while dropping off from last year, will still be a fierce challenge. We will pound Tech, and we will probably see A&M’s worst team in the last 5 years, which means we might actually have a chance this year. They are in full rebuilding mode, or should be anyhow.
There are 3 teams that can realistically beat us on any given day. We won’t lose all of them. Our team is too good. Our defense will be young but they are GOOD. We might be a year away from dominance but we’ll be a top 25 defense, if not in numbers, then performance (Big 12 has a lot of good offenses in it, leading to a little bit of a Pac-10 effect on defensive numbers).
Anyone who worries bout Davis is 100% right to do so. I didn’t last year and I paid for it. But if what we showed in the spring game becomes the norm, it’s there for us. Colt just can’t turn the ball over twice a game anymore.
April 3, 2008 at 6:30 pm
We WOULD have lost 4 games last year if Charles was not on the team. We have downgraded or remained equal at every position on offense, except maybe center and one of the guards. On defense we have downgraded at DT but upgraded at LB. If fact LB is the only defensive position where we have unquestionably upgraded. Secondary, despite lots of fast dudes, is a question mark. It IS reasonable that we could lose 4 games.
April 3, 2008 at 7:11 pm
But we didn’t lose 4. We did that without Sweed and without any semblance of a defense, and with a mostly dysfunctional offense.
The point of this is that no matter who our coaches are, we can talent our way through the schedule. OU, Kansas, and Missouri are all good teams, but we have better players.
We lost Charles, but we upgrade the OL. The defense will be light years better. There is no question mark about that.
We are going to be a good team this year. I understand the hesitancy to be optimistic. But as long as Davis doesn’t fuck us over again, we have a shot at the Big 12 title. A good shot. Missouri, Kansas, OU, and Texas all play each other (Missouri/OU), so it’s wide open.
Like I said, it will hinge on the LBs staying healthy for once, and Colt playing well every weekend.
April 4, 2008 at 5:17 am
“But as long as Davis doesn’t fuck us over again, we have a shot at the Big 12 title.”
And as long as everything goes to plan, I’ve got a great shot at tagging Jessica Alba tonight.
April 4, 2008 at 5:25 am
I tend to think the talent equation is not an excuse to drop several games this year. At the same time, while we did manage the 10-win standard again, we did it more on gutty performances that–from a W-L perspective–covered our overall play. Games like the first of the season or the Neb contest were generally abominable performances. In many ways, due to combo of schedule and guts, we somehow still managed the win plateau.
My thought is this year’s team might be better but still struggle to win the ten, assuming the opposition is indeed tougher as everyone tends to think. We really never know, though, since I doubt much of anyone thought Mizzou and KU were going to be anywhere near that good.
April 4, 2008 at 6:20 am
Nordberg: first chance I get, I’m gonna push you down the stairs of Angels Stadium.
April 4, 2008 at 7:46 am
I tend to agree with C-A. We will be better this year and should still get our 10-wins, which is an amazing feat if you step back and think about it.
However, we’re Texas. And we’re spoiled. And we expect to be challenging for the Big XII and NC every year. Which, we should be.
While Colt is no VY, I do think a lot of his problems last year stemmed from a weak OL. This year will be a good measure of his work ethic, leadership abilities, and if he is able to make the most of the talent that he has.
As C-A pointed out, all the “good” schools in the Big XII play each other this year, but Texas still has superior talent to many of those (exception to ou). While I think Mizzou & Kansas will still be good, I would not be surprised to see a significant drop off from at least one of them. Unless you have the talent, tradition, coaching, and money that the perennial powerhouses of NCAA football have, it takes more than one good year to turn around a program and become a yearly contender for a championship. Last year they were (somewhat) unexpectedly good. This year, other teams will be ready for them.
I also think a lot depends on team chemistry. Last year the guys just didn’t seem to have the fire and desire it takes to win games the way they should. That is a team leadership issue. Some of those guys need to step up in a major way between now and August.
April 4, 2008 at 8:36 pm
This is a good time to note that the reason I predicted one loss last year was because “surely Greg Davis can’t make the same mistake two years in a row” and “surely our defense can’t be this bad again.”
So listen to me at your own peril.
To add to Sasha’s point about Missouri and KU, they scare me less because of our physical ability to cover man to man. You can really disrupt a spread to quickly if you can just man up outside and not let the passing game worry your run defense.
Our pass defense from the LB spot will likely be suspect, still, depending on who is playing at any given moment, but we played Earl Thomas so much at almost an OLB position in the spring game that I have to think that we’ll just do that, instead of that base defense all the time nonsense.
April 5, 2008 at 6:22 am
“There are 3 teams that can realistically beat us on any given day. We won’t lose all of them. Our team is too good. ”
I count 7 teams that could beat us on any given day: Arkansas, OU, MU Kansas, Tech, Colorado and A&M.
Now, I’ll agree there’s only 3 teams that might beat us at least 4 out of 10 times - OU, Kansas and Missouri. The sad thing about both of those comments is that there is only 1 team on our schedule with roughly equal talent - OU.
But coaching and schemes matter, a lot, and we go into every game against quality opponents with a deficit in that area. Maybe Muschamp and Applewhite can change that this year - I surely do hope so. If we don’t have some serious scheme changes on offense, we are going to have pure hell moving the football all year long.
April 5, 2008 at 8:25 am
Well, my response was poorly worded. On any given day, pretty much any opponent can beat us.
Really, I think we have 4 opponents. OU, Kansas, Missouri, and EverybodyelseU. Nobody other than those three deserves mention, imo, as teams that have a realistic shot to beat us. I’m not saying they won’t, just that the odds are with us here.
We will be schematically sound of defense, and almost certainly not on offense, unless Teh Major (pause for harp music . . . . ok) really shows influence over the offense. The spring game has me optimistic but not sold.
April 5, 2008 at 9:24 am
I believe you’re right about Muschamp, just to be clear. I think he’s a hell of a hire, and look forward to an improved defense overall. That said, I look at that defense and really don’t see any overwhelming talents, like a DJ, a Casey Hampton, a Michael Huff or a Quentin Jammer. So, even with Muschamp, I think it’s entirely possible we are at best a little above average on defense.
Offensively, it’s just a crap shoot. Every Spring, we see stuff on that side of the ball that makes us optimistic that changes for the better are coming, but by September Davis has fallen back into his 10 yearlong rut. Can Major change that? Doubtful. Davis is still calling the shots on that side of the ball, and until he’s gone (pray that that ever does happen) that’s the way it’s going to be.
Really good post, BTW - I enjoyed it.
April 5, 2008 at 9:34 am
I am wary of Davis for just the reason you state. I learned my lesson last year, that Davis, apparently, doesn’t learn lessons, no matter how obvious they are.
On defense, I think Beasley will prove to be the talent you hope for. I also think Earl Thomas and Ben Wells have that potential, although both are probably a year away, conservatively. Muckelroy is probably the second best LB Mack’s had, and then of course there is Sergio Kindle. If he can get get his head on straight(question mark) and can stay healthy (big question mark) he will be better than DJ. I state this with unerring confidence.
Of course, none of those things may come to pass. Of all the guys who can potentially make that leap (Miller, Beasley, Wells, Thomas, Muck, Kindle, Chykie Brown, Orakpo) I think only Miller and Beasley, and possibly Orakpo are safe bets to do so.
Still, our raw talent is so much higher than last year that I can’t imagine not making a huge improvement overall. Muschamp has the track record to ellicit the kind of trust that would lead me to put out on a first date. So we’ll see.
April 8, 2008 at 10:13 am
Yeah, I can’t see the argument that we don’t have playmakers on D. Proven playmakers no, but bigtime talent? Yes. Have we ever had 2 LBs with as much physical talent as Kindle and Muck? And the athletes at DE and DB are there.
Now on offense I agree, lots of pieces who could be nice role players on a great offense if there were a couple of stars sprinkled in. But then LSU and tOSU have won big with bland offenses and great defenses, so maybe?